in transit

Twin themes of transition and migration, both forced and voluntary run through the West Indian and South African experience, linked as they are to economic, social and individual power structures still in place today. The legacy of the forcible migration of women’s bodies throughout the globe is of a society polarised by power and privilege, where some women’s bodies are still more accessible and vulnerable than others, reflecting the increasing frequency of female victims of rape and assault in South Africa.Sugar cane fields present sites of forced labour, rape, miscegenation and capitalism. The complex history of racial and sexual violence, reflects the mythologizing of the female body as object and fetish. Utilising symbols of export and commodities, such as packaging, maps, sugar and molasses with my own body, I address themes relating to race, gender, sexuality, power, the consumption and commodification of the female body.